Petronas launches hull for PFLNG2 at South Korean shipyard

Malaysia's national oil company Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) reached a construction milestone for its second floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, the PETRONAS floating LNG2 (PFLNG2), officials confirmed on Wednesday.

On April 30, the company celebrated the official launch of the hull at the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard in Geoje Island, South Korea.

The 1,289-foot (393-meter)-long hull was floated out from the Green Dock 3 to anchor at the quayside of the SHI shipyard, signifying the near completion of the hull construction -- which commenced in June 2015.

Abdullah Karim, PETRONAS' advisor for project delivery and technology in its global LNG projects business, said the construction of PFLNG2 has tapped on the experiences from PFLNG Satu to broaden PETRONAS’ floating LNG capabilities for deepwater operations.

“We take great pride in achieving this important milestone," he said. "The many lessons learnt from the design and construction of PFLNG Satu have been applied to PFLNG2. I look forward to the successful completion of PFLNG2 and must thank the project team JGC and SHI for the good job."

Both PFLNG Satu and PFLNG2 are anticipated to be significant game changers in the LNG business landscape, as they pave the way to unlocking gas reserves from remote, marginal and stranded gas fields, which would otherwise be uneconomical to develop, the company said.

Zakaria Kasah, vice president of project delivery and technology within the company's group project delivery business, said the launch of the hull signifies an achievement as well as the commitment by PETRONAS for the PFLNG2 project.

“The project has a good track record and safety performance that will ensure project deliveries are met as planned,” he said.

PETRONAS, together with JGC Group and SHI, the consortium leading the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning of the PFLNG2, commemorated the milestone with a pledge to deliver the PFLNG2 on schedule with safety as top priority.

Once completed, PFLNG2 has a collective weight of 134,000 tons and will enable the liquefaction, production and offloading processing of natural gas in the Rotan field, 149 miles (240 kilometers) offshore Sabah.

Designed for water-depth between 1,640 feet (500 meters) to 4,921 feet (1,500 meters) deep and a processing capacity of 1.5 MMtpy, PFLNG2 will strengthen PETRONAS’ global LNG portfolio and add to its reputation as a reliable LNG supplier, the company says.

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